In recent years diverse hand-manipulated geometric puzzles have increased in popularity and ingenuity of development with a view toward the increasing interest of individuals in the mental challenges in solving such puzzles and the manual dexterity required for the same.
Many such puzzles are known in the art and are available in the marketplace. To date, however, there has not been available an easily handled puzzle requiring only modest dexterity while presenting a difficult challenge in effecting a desired reorientation of color or pattern of individual small cubes arranged in a cubical array.
Existing cube-type games include that known as "Rubik's Cube" which while challenging is inordinately complex both in concept and physical manufacture. On the other end of the scale with respect to shifting piece puzzles, the well-known planar array of 15 slidable squares in a 4.times.4 pattern provides a challenge that is far more readily solved than when effecting solution of a position problem in a three dimensional environment.
Other sliding block puzzle games are exemplified by the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Sinden 3,841,638 and Kosareck 3,845,959.